Tech Talk

You might understandably be pining for an iPhone 14 , but the iPhone Photography Awards 2022 has just landed to proved you don't really need that rumored 48MP camera to take incredible snaps. The annual competition, which runs independently from Apple but is now in its 15th year, has just announced its impressive winner's list. And it's by no means dominated by the latest iPhones, with the winners stretching all the way back to the iPhone 6S Plus from 2015. We've done some tallying up and 44% of the winners were actually taken on models from the iPhone 11 series or earlier. That said, the most well-represented phone by far is the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which was behind 23% of the competition's award-winning shots. The iPhone 12 Pro Max, from 2020, was the most well-represented model among this year's iPhone Photography Awards award winners. (Image credit: Apple) The rules of the IPPA 2022 awards state that photos "should not be altered in any desk

Fitbit announced that it will discontinue the ability to sync your wearable device with PC and Macs, preventing users from downloading their own music from their computers onto their devices.  Fitbit has declared it will kill the feature on October 13, writing on its site that “we're removing the option to sync your Fitbit device with the Fitbit Connect app on your computer. Download and use the Fitbit app on your phone to sync your device.” So, how do you import your own music onto your best Fitbit without doing it the old-fashioned way, with a cable and your computer? The short answer is: you don’t.  Fitbit writes on its help page for music and podcasts that “On October 13, 2022, we're removing the option to transfer playlists to your Fitbit watch through your computer. You can continue to play personal music stored on your watch and transfer music to your watch with the Deezer app and Pandora app.” These apps don’t exactly have the largest user bases, so it seems lik

Shaggy in MultiVersus . | Image: Warner Bros. Games The first season of MultiVersus, Warner Bros.’ free-to-play take on a Super Smash Bros .-esque crossover fighter, will now begin on August 15th, developer Player First Games tweeted Thursday evening . The season had been scheduled to kick off on August 9th, but the studio announced last week that the launch had been delayed. Alongside the news of the season start date, Player First Games announced that Morty from Rick and Morty will be joining the MultiVersus roster on August 23rd; his arrival had been pushed back last week as well. Player First Games also committed to adding “new modes and content” over the course of the season . Ahead of the season 1 delay, the Rick half of Rick and Morty was planned to be added sometime during the season , but it’s unclear if that’s still the case. Quick Note: Everything we are bringing to you in Season 1 will not drop on the same day. New modes and content will be spread through the

Image: Amazon Ring , the Amazon-owned home security company that’ll sell you a camera just as swiftly as it will give law enforcement access to that same camera’s footage without a warrant, is producing a television show that sounds an invitation to participate in the surveillance state . You know, as a fun family activity. Deadline reports that Wanda Sykes has signed on to host Ring Nation , a new America’s Funniest Home Videos -style clip show from MGM Television, Ring, and Big Fish Entertainment, the production company behind Live P.D. Described as a “daily dose of life’s unpredictable, heartwarming and hilarious viral videos” in a press release , Ring Nation will feature footage captured on people’s Ring cameras presented in a way that’s meant to be entertaining. Ring Nation sounds an invitation to participate in the surveillance state as a fun family activity “Bringing the new community together is core to our mission at Ring, and Ring Nation gives friends and family

The new Photo Frame mode on Echo Show smart displays and Fire TVs removes ads and other clutter from your photo slideshow. | Image: Amazon Amazon Echo Show smart displays have never been as good as Google's Nest Hub or a dedicated digital photo frame for doing one thing well: showing your pictures. This is because Amazon clutters up the screen with questionably useful info and alternates your pretty pictures with suggestions for the latest Alexa skill you might like to try, a recipe for egg salad, or a news tidbit about a tomato shaped like a duck . But as of August 5th, you can now command your Echo Show or Fire TV to show you just your pictures and nothing else for a whole three hours. Photo Frame mode hides all ads, calendars, and weather notifications to become a photo-only slideshow Amazon’s digital photo frame feature, previously only available on the Echo Show 15, is now on all Echo smart displays and Fire TVs in the US, the UK, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy,

The Dell XPS 13 is one of the best laptops for high school and college students. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Shopping for a laptop can be stressful — doubly stressful if you or your children will be learning online for the first time. Kids of different ages have a range of different laptop use cases and different needs. And as the choices for best laptop and best Chromebook evolve, so do students’ needs. So I spoke to some experts on the subject: students themselves. My recommendations here are meant to accommodate a variety of preferences and price ranges. But they’re a jumping-off point rather than an exhaustive list: every student is different. Before making a decision, you’ll want to make sure you read reviews and try out devices yourself if you can. I’ll do my best to keep this article up to date with items that are in stock. Best laptop for students Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Google’s Pixelbook Go has solid battery life and a rippled base th

Image: Blizzard Getting fired is never fun, but it’s even worse when you find out via Tweet. Sang-min “Myunb0ng” Seo, support player for New York’s Overwatch League team, found out he wasn’t going to be playing in this or any other week’s games when his organization bid farewell to him in a tweet . Roster changes in the OWL are usually announced via tweet, so this wasn’t out of the ordinary. Problem is, it seems like no one told Seo of his release beforehand. He responded to the farewell tweet with question marks, seemingly confused. Image: Twitter He also quote-tweeted the announcement with another question mark , seemingly confirming the idea that he hadn’t known this was coming. Image: Twitter This particular revelation inspires a big ol’ “oof” because a couple of hours before tweeting about Seo’s release, the New York Excelsior tweeted a welcome for its newest support player, Soon-jae “Ansoonjae” Jae. So, ostensibly, Seo saw the announcement and was in the process of wel